Dylan

[Kevin Davis]

Before the Flood is a bottom 5 Dylan album for me.

[LetMeSleep]

Before the Flood is a bottom 5 Dylan album for me.

Not as low as the 1984 live album. Or Dylan and the Dead.

If you listen to Before The Flood you should also include Hard Rain and Budokan.

[Kevin Davis]

Before the Flood is a bottom 5 Dylan album for me.

Not as low as the 1984 live album. Or Dylan and the Dead.

Neither of those are any good either, but at least Real Live has that great "Tangled Up in Blue" rewrite. Before the Flood is completely ruined for me by Dylan's relentless shouting and Garth Hudson's heavy-handed keyboard playing. But, I'm not a huge Band fan so the fact that half the tracks on that album are theirs doesn't help its case for me.

I do like some scattered performances from that tour, though -- for example, the only-ever live performance of "As I Went Out One Morning," which is pretty great, and some of the Planet Waves songs.

Hard Rain is tremendous though, and I know Budokan has its detractors but I think it's very good. But if any catalog journey has already missed its chance to include Live 1966, I say stick with just the studio stuff, unless you're drawing a line between contemporaneous releases and archival ones.

[liebzz]

Yeah I am not weaving in archival releases. I didn’t do that with Neil Young either, but I will throw in the live albums here - Hard Rain, Before the Flood and Budokan.

[Wendy Carlos's Twin]

Yeah I am not weaving in archival releases. I didn’t do that with Neil Young either, but I will throw in the live albums here - Hard Rain, Before the Flood and Budokan.

The only archival release that should be weaved in is probably the Basement demo, as I sent you, because it really is like a "lost" period album that wasn't really lost because it was almost immediately bootlegged. The first rock bootleg ever, in fact.

It also nicely bridges the gap between Blonde On Blonde and John Wesley Harding which are like two completely different worlds.

[liebzz]

Yeah I am glad for that detour. Thanks!

[liebzz]

Planet Waves - of the albums I set out to listen to here, probably the one album I knew I would greatly enjoy would be this one, in large part because I really enjoy The Band - at least their 60s/70s output. It also helps that their sound meshes perfectly with Bob Dylan’s vocals - it all sounds so natural. While this isn’t a perfect album, it certainly pleasing and contains many highlights. On a Night Like This is exactly what I would expect from this combo and it delivers in spades. Going, Going, Gone, Hazel, Something There Is About You (rather unexpectedly), and Wedding Song were also very good moments on this album. My favorites though had to be the duo of Forever Young (slow and fast were equally enjoyable), and Dirge which just hit the right spot for me. This is an album that is not quite a game changer but is certainly an upgrade from Dylan and Pat Garrett & Billy the Kid. This, I would imagine, probably translated better live on the strength of The Band’s and Dylan’s strength as live performers, which is coming up next...

[ghost]

Planet Waves - of the albums I set out to listen to here, probably the one album I knew I would greatly enjoy would be this one, in large part because I really enjoy The Band - at least their 60s/70s output. It also helps that their sound meshes perfectly with Bob Dylan’s vocals - it all sounds so natural. While this isn’t a perfect album, it certainly pleasing and contains many highlights. On a Night Like This is exactly what I would expect from this combo and it delivers in spades. Going, Going, Gone, Hazel, Something There Is About You (rather unexpectedly), and Wedding Song were also very good moments on this album. My favorites though had to be the duo of Forever Young (slow and fast were equally enjoyable), and Dirge which just hit the right spot for me. This is an album that is not quite a game changer but is certainly an upgrade from Dylan and Pat Garrett & Billy the Kid. This, I would imagine, probably translated better live on the strength of The Band’s and Dylan’s strength as live performers, which is coming up next...

Love Planet Waves... GGG has one of my favorite guitar solos of all time, and STIAY is just perfection.

[Kevin Davis]

Planet Waves is an album that took a really long time to register with me, but gradually over the years, one song at a time, I've grown to really enjoy it. It's not perfect, and I find Robertson's guitar a little shrill throughout (something I struggle with in his playing in general, which seems particularly pronounced on this album), but as you say, it is full of minor pleasures -- "Hazel," "You Angel You," "Never Say Goodbye," and "Something There Is About You" are probably my favorites. The slow "Forever Young" has always felt kind of stale to me -- of all the sources that Dylan has borrowed from over the years, it seems odd to me that this fairly elementary interpolation of the traditional Irish blessing would become so famous (maybe I've just heard the lyrically similar Rod Stewart rendition one time too many). Anyway, I like how the fast version kind of turns the sentiment on its head, and weirdly -- because of my wife's years-long routine of watching the NBC show "Parenthood," which uses it as its theme -- it's now the version more etched on my brain.

The album is a very natural bridge between the domestic ease of the New Morning era and the more tumultuous Blood on the Tracks/Desire/Rolling Thuder Revue period.

[Hatfield]

Before the Flood is a bottom 5 Dylan album for me.

I am a sucker for Before the Flood. I love that coke fueled, arena rock with the Band backing him. "You say you love me and you're thinking of me, but you know you could be WRONG!"

[Kevin Davis]

"Most Likely" is the only track on Before the Flood that works for me.

Probably because it's the opening song and that shout-sing style hasn't worn its welcome yet.

[Strat]

Live Dylan has never done anything for me. The recorded works are the definitive versions for me and while it can be interesting to see how they immediately evolved live, it just never really sat well with me. ive tried but its just not interesting. I also dont like The Band as a backing band either.

[Hatfield]

"Most Likely" is the only track on Before the Flood that works for me.

Probably because it's the opening song and that shout-sing style hasn't worn its welcome yet.

KD, can you point me to finding a particular bootleg. All of this live talk and L getting close to 74-76, it sent me searching for Rolling Thunder and I REALLY want to hear Fort Worth 1976 (5/16/76). Can you tell me where to look?

[Kevin Davis]

Yes! If you go to the Expecting Rain site and create an account, you will gain access to their "Rare Dylan Recordings" forum. There you should see a sticky thread called "A-Z list" that has a bunch of active download links sorted by year (should be straight ZIP/RAR downloads, no torrents). That's a pretty definitive boot so I expect you'd find it pretty easily, maybe even in multiple versions/formats. Let me know if that doesn't work.

[liebzz]

Before the Flood - there’s been a bit of chatter here about this live album and I read it but I didn’t let it color my thoughts. This is really much of a dual release since the Band songs are done by The Band, and the Dylan songs half done by Dylan and half with the Band. I am a fan of The Band’s work and these are pretty good versions of mostly a strong selection from the first phase of their career, but nowhere near as definitive as Rock of Ages or The Last Waltz - which is to say good but not particularly great. Dylan does not sound so great on this release. The selection of songs is great, but they are performed in such a manner that it feels like he’s reaching for the back of the room instead of true rearrangements. I was mostly happy until It Ain’t Me Babe, which just didn’t seem to fit. The version of All Along the Watchtower as well as Like a Rolling Stone were both pretty good, but on the Dylan side this didn’t pique my interest as much as the Band side. It’s still as nice release in all, though not definitive, but the higher energy atmosphere at least worked for me since I listened to this while running this afternoon.

[Hatfield]

Yes! If you go to the Expecting Rain site and create an account, you will gain access to their "Rare Dylan Recordings" forum. There you should see a sticky thread called "A-Z list" that has a bunch of active download links sorted by year (should be straight ZIP/RAR downloads, no torrents). That's a pretty definitive boot so I expect you'd find it pretty easily, maybe even in multiple versions/formats. Let me know if that doesn't work.

[rick malone]

Agree that Most Likely You'll Go Your Way and I'll Go Mine from Before The Flood is an all time great version. The version of Don't Think Twice is awesome too.

I enjoy his voice on this album(full throated roar). I've been meaning to check out Hold The Fort '76 too. It seems many on the Expecting Rain forums prefer Hard Rain/'76 over Before The Flood.

[doug rr]

the next album on your list, if I'm correct in guessing is the best album ever...im waiting for the review

[Kevin Davis]

I enjoy his voice on this album(full throated roar). I've been meaning to check out Hold The Fort '76 too. It seems many on the Expecting Rain forums prefer Hard Rain/'76 over Before The Flood.

This is not a phenomenon limited to that forum, the Rolling Thunder tours are generally regarded as some of his best ever...

[LetMeSleep]

I enjoy his voice on this album(full throated roar). I've been meaning to check out Hold The Fort '76 too. It seems many on the Expecting Rain forums prefer Hard Rain/'76 over Before The Flood.

This is not a phenomenon limited to that forum, the Rolling Thunder tours are generally regarded as some of his best ever...

Absolutely.